Liberal health minister laughs at gay Conservative MP for asking to end blood ban

Liberal Health Minister Patty Hajdu, chuckled when Conservative MP Erin Duncan asked whether she would end the blood ban for gay men. Duncan is a gay man, and represents Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry in the House of Commons. The exchange took place on Thursday.

"Does she not feel comfortable taking my blood?" said Duncan. To which Hajdu initially replied with a chuckle. “This is not funny,” Eric Duncan stated, “and this is not what she promised to gay men, to end the stigma, over five years ago.”

Canada is one of the countries in which gay and bisexual individuals are banned from donating blood. This has long been seen as a discriminatory practice. The Liberal party promised to end the ban on gay and bisexual men donating blood in 2015 and 2019. They never did.

Duncan suggested that there is an easy way to end the ban, and this method is endorsed by the Canadian Medical Association and the All Blood is Equal Association—a system of individualized risk assessments based on sexual behaviour, rather than sexual orientation.

Nonetheless, Hajdu dodged the questions and remained steadfast on the belief that the Liberal party has done the most of the LGBTQ community.